U.S. House Pric es Rose 1.9 Percent in First Quarter 2013
Washington, DC – May 28, 2013 – (RealEstateRama) — Upward momentum in U.S. house prices remained strong in the first quarter of this year, rising 1.9 percent from the previous quarter, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) House Price Index (HPI). This is the seventh consecutive quarterly price rise in the purchase-only, seasonally adjusted index.
“The housing market has stabilized in many areas and homebuilding activity has strengthened in recent quarters,” said FHFA Principal Economist Andrew Leventis. “That said, labor market weakness and still-elevated foreclosure pipelines remain hindrances to a more robust recovery.”
The HPI is calculated using home sales price information from mortgages sold to or guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Compared to last year, house prices rose 6.7 percent from the first quarter of 2012 to the first quarter of 2013. FHFA’s seasonally adjusted monthly index for March was up 1.3 percent from February.
FHFA’s expanded-data house price index, a metric introduced in August 2011 that adds transaction information from county recorder offices and the Federal Housing Administration to the HPI data sample, rose 1.9 percent over the latest quarter. Over the last four quarters, that index is up 6.4 percent. For individual states, price changes reflected in the expanded-data measure and the traditional purchase-only HPI are compared on pages 26-28 of this report.
While the seasonally adjusted, purchase-only HPI rose 6.7 percent from the first quarter of 2012 to the first quarter of 2013, prices of other goods and services rose only 1.4 percent over the same period. Accordingly, the inflation-adjusted price of homes rose approximately 5.2 percent over the latest year.
Significant Findings:
? The seasonally adjusted purchase-only HPI rose in 41 states and the District of Columbia during the first quarter.
? Of the nine census divisions, the Pacific division experienced the strongest increase in the latest quarter, posting a 4.4 percent price increase.
? House prices were weakest in the Middle Atlantic division, where prices increased 0.3 percent from the prior quarter.
? As measured with purchase-only indexes for the 75 most populated metropolitan areas in the U.S., first quarter price increases were greatest in the Jacksonville, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). That area saw prices increase by 9.3 percent between the fourth quarter of 2012 and first quarter of 2013.
? Prices were weakest in the Bridgeport, Stamford, Norwalk, CT MSA, where prices fell 3.5 percent over that period.
? The monthly seasonally adjusted purchase-only index for the U.S. has increased for 14 consecutive months.
FHFA’s “distress-free” house price indexes, which were recently released for 12 large metropolitan areas, generally report lower quarterly appreciation than FHFA’s traditional purchase-only indexes. In 11 of the 12 areas covered, the new series—which removes the direct effect of short sales and sales of bank-owned properties —shows lower appreciation in the latest quarter than the purchase-only series.
The complete list of state appreciation rates is on pages 23-24. The list of metropolitan area appreciation rates computed in a purchase-only series is on pages 38-40. Appreciation rates for the all-transactions metropolitan area indexes are on pages 44-58.
Highlights
This quarter’s Highlights article announces increased metropolitan area coverage for FHFA’s purchase-only indexes. With this release, purchase-only indexes are supplied for 75 metropolitan areas—an increase from 25 areas in previous quarters. The accompanying Technical Note compares revisions and standard errors for the new metrics against statistics for already-published areas. Since the new metro areas tend to have smaller housing stocks and more limited transaction volumes, the new indexes are shown to have slightly higher revisions than already-published indexes.
Background
FHFA’s purchase-only and all-transactions HPI track average house price changes in repeat sales or refinancings on the same single-family properties. The purchase-only index is based on more than 6 million repeat sales transactions, while the all-transactions index includes more than 48 million repeat transactions. Both indexes are based on data obtained from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for mortgages originated over the past 38 years.
This HPI report contains tables showing: 1) House price appreciation for the 50 states and Washington, D.C.; 2) House price appreciation by census division and for the U.S. as a whole;
3) A ranking of 300 MSAs and metropolitan divisions by house price appreciation; and 4) A list of one-year and five-year house price appreciation rates for MSAs not ranked.
? The next quarterly HPI report, which will include data for the second quarter of 2013, will be released August 22, 2013.
? The next monthly index, which will include data through April 2013, will be released June 25, 2013.
? HPI release dates for 2013 are available at http://www.fhfa.gov/Default.aspx?Page=83.
###
The Federal Housing Finance Agency regulates Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the 12 Federal Home Loan Banks.
These government-sponsored enterprises provide more than $5.5 trillion in funding for the U.S. mortgage markets and financial institutions.
Contact:
Corinne Russell (202) 649-3032
Stefanie Johnson (202) 649-3030
